María Josefa Huarte Beaumont or mecenas; benefactora; Maria Josefa Huarte Beaumont (25 May 1927 – 8 February 2015) was a Spanish art collector and philanthropist. She is known for donating her modern art collection (and a building to put it in) to the

University of Navarra , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...

Life

Beaumont was born in

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

. Her father was Felix Huarte who was a successful builder. Her mother was Adriana Beaumont Galduroz. She was the third of four children. Beaumont spent time travelling with her husband and she would see and buy modern art that appealed to her. She decided to leave her collection to the University of Navarra in 2008 and she commissioned the architect

Rafael Moneo José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born 9 May 1937) is a Spanish architect. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996, the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003 and Venice Biennale, La Biennale's Golden Lion in 2 ...

to build a home for it. The collection of 48 pieces of art was by nineteen artists. The focus of the collection is on geometric contemporary abstract art by Spanish artists but there are exceptions to this. Moneo commented on how Beaumont did not interfere with his design but was very supportive of his proposals. Moneo chose an abstract design for the new building to mirror the collection. The building is part of the university but it is intended to be a cultural hub as well for Pamplona.

Death and legacy

Museum Universidad de Navarra Beaumont died in her home city,

, in 2015. In January 2015, the Museum of the University of Navarra was inaugurated by

King Felipe VI Felipe VI (;, * eu, Felipe VI.a, * ca, Felip VI, * gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and ...

and houses her donated collection.. This great collections of contemporary art included works by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Latv ...

and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

. Her donated collection included not only paintings but also thousands of photographs by leading photographers going back to the nineteenth century.

Private life

She was married to Javier Vidal, they had no children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaumont, María Josefa Huarte 1927 births 2015 deaths People from Pamplona Spanish art collectors